Shinji and the Underground
by ForgottenHistory
Summary: Shinji Ikari walked peacefully up a mountain that he didn't even know the name of. But what he found there was anything but peaceful.
1. Fallen

Part I - Fallen

2015 C.E.

Shinji woke up lying face down on the ground. The ground was hard, cold. Opening his eyes, he could tell wherever he was, that it was dark.

He coughed and opened his eyes. How long had he been here? Misato and Ritsuko would probably be looking for him by now.

The last thing he remembered was walking up the side of a mountain…he couldn't even remember the name, to be honest. He'd just been listening to music when he'd felt rushing blackness, like he had stepped over the side of a ledge…

He stood up slowly, gazing around him. Above him, the mountain towered, seemingly to infinity. Steep slopes surrounding him made any climb back up seem impossible. He looked at the rocky ground. Not far from where he fell, his digital cassette player was lying on the ground in pieces.

 _Great, now I've broken it,_ he thought sadly. Looking around, it seemed like he would be stuck here for at least a little while. He'd have no source of entertainment.

Looking to the side, he saw a dark passageway. He thought he saw some sort of light coming from it.

 _I can see what is in there,_ he thought to himself. At least it might be some sort of shelter. Maybe he could ask for help…

He slowly walked inside. The passage was barely lit and silent, almost eerily so. _This doesn't seem like a very inviting place…_

Just when he was about to go back, however, he saw an odd looking flower in the middle of a large room. There wasn't anything really abnormal about the flower…except that it was smiling at him.

 _An Angel?_ Shinji thought desperately. He turned to run away or try and hide, panic washing over him. But then the flower did something else he didn't expect.

It spoke.

"There's no need to be afraid, child! It's just little ol' me!" the flower said in a cheery, calming sort of voice. Shinji almost couldn't resist stopping and walking back, if for nothing but curiosity.

"W-who are you?" Shinji asked, a little uncertain. He didn't exactly trust out of the ordinary things.

"I'm Flowey. The Flower! You must be so lost, being here all alone! Here, I can help show you around this place." Flowey replied, still cheery as usual.

Shinji looked around again. "W-where exactly am I?"

"This is the Underground. Specifically, the Ruins. It's the home of a race known as the Monsters."

"M-monsters?" Shinji said, a little concerned.

"Why yes! Monsters," Flowey said. "Surely you know about them, being human and all! No? Well, I can teach you something!"

"The humans and monsters used to be at war with one another, until they lost. Monsters have been trapped here by the humans ever since the war ended."

Shinji looked puzzled. He'd never heard of any such war…the only thing NERV spoke about were the Angels, and the Second Impact. When had humanity fought against the Monsters too?

"So…this is called the Underground, then?"

"Yep!" Flowey said, excited now. "It's a series of puzzles, really."

"So, there's no easy way to get back up?"

Flowey chuckled lightly.

"There's only one way back up, child! And that's through the maze."

Shinji sighed. He didn't like the sound of that. He had to get back as soon as possible.

"Anyway, while you're here, I might as well give you some instructions," Flowey explained. "Here in the Underground, our souls exist outside of our bodies. They represent our lives."

Shinji looked shocked as a red heart slowly floated beside him.

"T…This is my…soul?"

"Yep! And you can even make your soul stronger by collecting things known as 'friendliness pellets.' Do you want to try?"

Shinji seemed confused.

"I can try…I guess…" he said. He readied himself. Did he have to look for them?

"Yay!" Flowey said, smiling again. "Catch as many as you can!"

White pellets suddenly appeared around Flowey and began to zoom towards him. He was frightened, but didn't move. One of the pellets scraped his shoulder.

"Ow!" Shinji cried as he was wounded. He suddenly felt dizzy and weak. It was like he was piloting the Eva again, only it was his injury he was feeling now…

He heard cold, ringing laughter. Looking up weakly, he saw Flowey again. His face had changed now. It looked cruel and evil.

"You idiot!" Flowey said, cold and amused. "In this world, it's kill or be killed! You're so weak and naive, I can't pass up the opportunity to kill you!"

Shinji tried to straighten himself. He felt a little better, now that some of the pain was subsiding.

"Die!" Flowey said, loudly.

A circle of pellets surrounded him now. They were all zooming towards him…there was no way he could escape.

 _This is how I'm going to die,_ Shinji thought to himself, resigned. _After all of those Angels…This is how I'm going to die…_

A flash of fire suddenly disturbed the darkness. Shinji looked up to see what had caused it. The pellets had all disappeared. Flowey was being brushed aside by the jet of fire. He glanced at his arm…it wasn't hurting or bleeding anymore. _What happened?_

"What a terrible creature, torturing such a poor, innocent child," a soft voice said in front of him. A tall figure approached him. She looked almost like a goat, and was wearing plush blue and white robes.

"Do not be afraid, child. My name is Toriel. I'm the Caretaker of the Ruins," Toriel said, smiling warmly as she bent down to help Shinji up. "You're safe now."

Shinji found himself speechless. "I-I'm Shinji. Ikari Shinji."

"Follow me," Toriel said, sympathetically. "I'll take you through the Ruins."


	2. Mother

"So…ummm…T-toriel…," Shinji managed at last, after they'd been walking in silence for a while. "H-how did you know to look for me?"

"I check the Ruins every day to see if a child has fallen," Toriel said. "You're the first child to come down here in quite some time, actually."

"I-I don't really remember why I'm here, though," Shinji said. "But can you help me get back?"

Toriel seemed taken aback for a moment. She smiled. "There's no need to worry about that right now. I'll take you to my house."

Shinji decided not to press the matter. They walked along in silence until they approached what looked like a puzzle.

"Is this a puzzle?" Shinji asked, curious.

"Yes, very good, my child," Toriel said, proudly. "I'll show you how to operate them. To make it through the Ruins, you'll have to solve them. I hope you can do it."

She walked over several stones that sank into the ground as she walked over them. Directly in front of them, a door slid open, revealing a passage behind it.

"Do you see, Shinji?" Toriel said. He nodded, and she smiled and continued to lead him forward. After they walked for a while, they eventually found themselves in another puzzle with spikes, which Toriel looked at and continued to lead him through, looking worried. At last she arrived at the end of one of the puzzles and looked at him more sadly than before. In front of her was what looked like a plastic dummy."

"This is a dummy," Toriel said. "It represents the Monsters you'll encounter inside the Ruins. You have a choice - you can talk with them, or you can fight them. I can't tell you which to choose, Shinji, but remember that not every Monster wants to fight with you."

"Walk up to the dummy and interact with it like you would a Monster. Stall for a moment, and I'll interrupt."

Shinji walked up to the dummy as instructed. Staring into its lifeless face, he couldn't really think of what to say.

"Err…so, I guess, you...don't want to fight?"

Shinji paused. Indeed some of the Monsters wouldn't want to fight. But maybe some would...Toriel said that he could fight. Just what would that look like.

Unsure of what to do, he extended his hands. This was what Toriel had done. He was surprised when an image flashed in front of his eyes - he recognized it easily. It was a targeting indicator. It looked almost like the one in Unit-01. A scrolling bar moved across the target. He guessed he could send an attack at any time.

Toriel came up from behind him and he quickly hid the targeting image. She smiled at him.

"Very good, Shinji," she said. She walked towards the puzzle room's exit, and looked behind her sadly.

"I'm going to go ahead now and get some things ready for you. You can be a guest in my house," Toriel said. "But to do this, I'm going to have to leave you alone for a while...Just stay here, Shinji. I'll return shortly." She smiled kindly at him. "Oh...here's a cell phone. It'll allow us to talk to each other when we want to. So you won't really be alone!"

To his credit, Shinji stayed in the room for quite a while. He even received a phone call from Toriel asking if he prefered cinnamon or butterscotch - he answered butterscotch, but cinnamon-butterscotch worked just as well. But eventually, he realized he just couldn't stand there. So he stepped forward. And he'd barely advanced that far at all before he saw a figure approaching, as his red heart again appeared beside him.


	3. Ghost

"My name is Whimsun…" A weak-looking ghost said as it drifted slowly into view. Whimsun looked like it took a lot of effort to keep from running away. "...I...I'll stop you…" He said, half-heartedly and sadly.

"I'm...not really doing anything, it's not necessary…"

But before he could continue, he found pellets zooming towards him again. He wasn't sure how he managed to, but he dodged all of them.

"I...I really don't want to do this, Whimsun!"

Whimsun started sobbing, but sent another round of pellets. This time, one struck Shinji in the leg. He winced in pain.

Looking up, he saw Whimsun looking at him. "I'm sorry...but I can't do anything right...I'm really not a g-good Monster..."

"That's really not true," Shinji said, as he tried to recover from the latest blast of pellets. "Y-you're really good. But you don't have to fight me. I don't want to fight you." Shinji remembered what Toriel had told him.

Whimsun looked taken aback. "R-really? That's the n-nicest thing anyone's ever said to me..." He floated off crying, although this time in happiness.

Shinji, who was quickly acclimating himself to his environment, decided to continue on. He noticed, however, that as his red heart faded away, that its color was slightly faded. Did that mean he was losing health?

Shinji kept walking through the purple corridors of the Ruins. He hadn't encountered any other Monsters since, but he could sense that he could probably encounter one at any moment.

He kept walking, and noticed piles of leaves in the corridor. Which struck him as odd, because there weren't any trees.

He was so busy looking at these leaves that he didn't notice when he hit something that wasn't the ground.

Nearly tripping, he looked down to see what he had run into. But he didn't see anything - how could he run into something invisible?

Then, slowly, the image of what had caused him to stumble appeared. It was a white ghost, with large oval eyes.

"Hello?" Shinji said, cautiously. He knew by now to be careful when meeting new characters here.

"Zzzzzzzzzzzz," the ghost said, out loud. "Zzzzzzzzzzzz"

Shinji looked confused. _Is that ghost really just saying Z? What does that even mean?_

"Ummm..." Shinji began, still cautiously. "...I don't mean to intrude or anything, but why are you saying 'Zzz' like that?"

The ghost didn't move, but he heard it speak with a soft, almost demotivated voice.

"Oh sorry. I guess I used the wrong sound. I didn't notice when you walked in," the ghost said.

"Suuu suuu suuu suuu suuu suuu," he began again. "Suuu suuu suuu suuu..."

 _Now he's pretending to sleep?_ Shinji thought. Beginning to think this ghost was better left alone, as he probably wanted to be, Shinji tried to walk around the white figure.

However, the ghost was taking up the entire path. Seeing that the ghost wasn't going to move, Shinji decided he would have to gently push him out of the way...

Just as he began to move the ghost, however, he saw that his heart had appeared again.

 _Not again!_ Shinji thought, berating himself for making so many mistakes.

The ghost seemed to be blocking his way now, facing him. Shinji remembered what Toriel had said...

 _Just talk...talk, or do something, and they won't want to fight you..._ Shinji said to himself.

"So, umm...I guess good job using the right sound effect, at least..." Shinji began, awkwardly. "I really didn't mean to push you..."

"Heh..." the ghost said, a small grin showing on his face. But the ghost still seemed demotivated. Shinji began to notice tears flowing from the ghost's eyes, and they zoomed towards him.

Shinji raced out of the way in time. Maybe he was gaining experience now...

He looked at Shinji again, as if expecting him to do something next.

"You can tell me what's wrong if you like," Shinji offered, though he really didn't know what he could do.

"Really not feeling up to it now, sorry..." the ghost trailed off. His tears flowed again, zooming towards Shinji. He expected them this time, but was struck by one on the arm anyway.

Shinji cried out and cringed as he was hit. But he recovered quickly - it was only a slight injury.

"I guess I can understand why you don't want to talk," Shinji said, sympathetically. "Everyone wants to talk to you...when you're sad, I mean...andd ask what's wrong, but no one can really say anything that helps...at least, that's what happens with me...I know..."

The ghost was looking at him oddly. Almost appreciatively.

"I have something I'd like to show you, if you like..." the ghost said, finally. Tears began to flow from his eyes, but instead of zooming towards him, as Shinji feared for a moment, they collected on top of his head. Soon a top hat appeared, as if by magic.

"...I call it, 'dapper blook.'" The ghost said with a small, timid chuckle.

Shinji smiled. The ghost smiled too.

Looking next to him, Shinji saw that his heart was no longer there. The confrontation must be over.

"I usually just come down here to be alone, because no one's ever in the ruins," the ghost said. "But today I met somebody nice..."

"What's your name?" Shinji asked.

"Napstablook," Napstablook said. "Anyway, I'm rambling again..."

"I hope that I see you again...maybe you can visit me later...when you're nearby..."

"Yes, I'd like that," Shinji said, smiling a little.

"Anyway, I'll get out of your way now..."

Napstablook disappeared, and Shinji was a little sad that he did. But, realizing he had to keep going forward, he kept walking down the passageway.

He had a feeling he'd meet Napstablook again. And many more Monsters...he hoped they'd all be as kind.


End file.
